Reid Seaby, Regional Manager WA
1.5 minute read
Farmers have been easing into their seeding programs over the last couple of weeks and are now eagerly awaiting rain as anticipation builds around a low pressure system that will cross the south west of the state on the weekend. Unfortunately, rainfall models are predicting the rain to remain confined to the lower west region and fail to deliver anything of significance to the cropping belt. Falls of around 5–10mm could occur in the surrounding areas of Albany which would encourage these growers to push on with seeding. It appears as though the wheatbelt and mid-west will miss out altogether, meaning farmers in these areas will likely continue slowly planting the crop without being able to achieve a knockdown for the second consecutive season.
Old crop wheat prices have tumbled since this time a fortnight ago. Essentially all wheat grades have fallen $20/MT per tonne or more. APW1 in Kwinana has dropped $21/MT to be bid at $282/MT FIS today and ASW is down a whopping $26/MT to $269/MT. Although the table below would suggest otherwise, new crop wheat has been relatively stable and is unchanged from two weeks ago. Bids literally jumped $20/MT in a day and then came back to where they were trading – I suspect buyers were testing the waters to see whether there was any grower selling on new crop at $300/MT.
Prices as at 2nd May 2019
* View of current market pricing. Does not represent current Agfarm bids.
